A Sit-Down With Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson

It’s hard to get Superintendent of Boston Public Schools (BPS) and Charlestown resident, Dr. Carol R. Johnson, to talk about herself. Education has been her life’s work and while she is pleased with all that she’s accomplished, she is more apt to talk about what she’d still like to get done.

Growing up, Dr. Johnson’s mother was a teacher, not just any teacher, but she was Johnson’s fifth grade teacher in the only school for black children in the small Tennessee town they lived in and a big influence in her decision to work in education.

Johnson’s first teaching job was as a third grade teacher. She stayed in elementary schools for several years before matriculating into administration. She taught and was a superintendent in Minnesota for many years before moving to the Superintendent’s job in Memphis, Tennessee. After two years in Memphis, she moved on to run the oldest public school system in the nation, Boston.

Johnson says her favorite teacher was an art teacher in high school. 

“She was great…  She taught you to take risks, to be creative—and I think maybe most importantly she told you often that, if you don’t like a piece you’ve done, you can always start over. So, in a way, that was kind of a freeing experience because she gave you permission to try things, to make mistakes, and to feel like you could figure out how to correct it. “

Was it any surprise, then that she won the VH1 award for promoting the arts in education?  “I feel very committed to making sure that students have not just a strong academic experience, but also an arts-rich experience.”

School systems across the country are having to do more with less funding and Boston is no different.

“We’ve had to make some tough decisions on budgets.”  Johnson said  “We’ve had to cut the budget every year since I’ve been here.”

Still the Boston schools currently have their lowest dropout rate in 20 years.

Johnson’s fluency with statistics and numbers relating to BPS is impressive.  She has what seems like an endless well of positive metrics by which to judge different schools’ performances. While Johnson is pleased and proud of the BPS’ performance, she is not complacent.  She continues to seek ways to improve, saying: “There’s still a lot of work to do, no doubt about it.”

Turning her attention to Charlestown, Johnson said: “Increasingly, we have more students wanting to go to the Warren-Prescott school and now, Harvard-Kent and the Edwards Middle School.”

“We’re making changes at Charlestown High School, expanding things like world language programs, Chinese, Arabic, and a forensic program. We have a strong and competitive debate club. There’s more to do, there’s folks who want us to bring back hockey and put more honors courses over there.”

Work takes up most of her time, but when she isn’t working she enjoys going for walks around the Navy Yard, listening to the sounds of the city, and says she makes it a point to shop and go eat to eat locally. 

“I’m busy most of the time. I was at the city basketball tournament on Friday night. At a community meeting on Saturday, and church on Sunday.  I go to a church in Roxbury. ”

Recently, she attended “Sugar” at ArtsEmerson.

In my car, I listen to spirituals and gospel music.  Some classical, like Vivaldi’s Four seasons, and some R&B, soul, pop.  I enjoy Whitney Houston and Taylor Swift, too.  I like all kinds of music.”

“At the end of the day, education is the most important thing in the city and if we don’t get it right, everybody suffers. The economy suffers, jobs suffer, families suffer, the community suffers as a whole.”